Homehttps://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/Sciencehttps://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/Ultra-fast star turns out to leave the Milky Way at 1700 km per second | science

Ultra-fast star turns out to leave the Milky Way at 1700 km per second | science

Astronomers have spotted a star traveling from the Milky Way at more than 6 m / h (3.7 m / h), or 1 700 km per second, after encountering a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. [19659002] The star moves so fast that in about 100 m it will emerge from the Milky Way and spend the rest of its life sailing alone through the intergalactic space. Although it was predicted 30 years ago that black holes could eject stars from the galaxy at phenomenal speeds, such an event was first reported.

Gary Da Costa, astronomer and emeritus professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, says: "We followed this star's journey back to the center of our galaxy, which is quite exciting."

Yes Costa and colleagues are they concluded that 5 million years ago, the star was part of a binary star system that traveled extremely close to Sagittarius A *, the location of the central black hole of the Milky Way, which has a mass equal to more than 4 m.

While the twin stars stopped moving inward, at some point closer to two they went into a binary partnership with a black hole that would eventually end up being crushed and disappearing into oblivion. The dynamics of this interaction resulted in the ejection of the original partner at extremely high speed.

The process is known as the Hills mechanism after astronomer Jack Hills proposed the scenario more than 30 years ago.

"This star travels at a record speed 1

0 times faster than most stars in the Milky Way, including our sun," said Costa. "Astronomically, the star will leave our galaxy soon enough and most likely travel through the void of intergalactic space for eternity."

The star known as S5-HVS1 is the third fastest star ever measured. The other two were those that were amplified to high speeds by supernova explosions.

"With the exception of these somewhat special cases, this star is by far and away the fastest ever to be seen," says Doug McKee, co-author of ANU's College of Science.

The team made the discovery of the star's 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian telescope at the ANU Spring Siding Observatory. stars and through these observations made the shameless discovery of S5-HVS1.

After the star's exit, the Milky Way will continue its journey through the intergalactic space. "It will continue, and it will eventually turn into a white dwarf like our sun; there will simply be no neighbors, "said Da Costa.

The results of the study were published in the Monthly News of the Royal Astronomical Society.